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POLITICO 44

Mike Huckabee cruised to an easy victory in a presidential straw poll taken among attendees at a social conservative conference, beating a group of four other Republican contenders by an over two-to-one margin.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and a 2008 presidential candidate, won with just over 28 percent of the 597 votes cast by attendees at the Family Research Council’s Values Voter Summit. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was the runner-up, narrowly edging out Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Alaska Gov. and Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and House Minority Conference Chairman Mike Pence (R-Ind.). The four all received about 12% of the vote.

Of the top five finishers, all but Palin addressed the conference.

In his remarks to the conference Friday, Huckabee cited scripture and said the party should resist any pressure to abandon social issues.

"There are so many people who have told us as conservatives that we should move to the center, on the sanctity of marriage or the sanctity of life,” Huckabee said, adding: “I'm not sure the center makes a whole lot of sense when it's coming from people who certainly don't have our interest, or our country's interest, at heart."

The attendees here certainly agreed with him and in the straw poll overwhelmingly named abortion as the issue most important in determining their vote; 41% of those who voted listed abortion while “protection of religious liberty,” the next closest issue, won 18%.

Romney, who spent considerable effort in his 2008 presidential bid wooing social conservatives, gave an address to the gathering that focused largely on critiquing President Obama’s fiscal and foreign policy.

In announcing the straw poll results, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins praised Huckabee for having his “finger on the pulse” of conservative voters and said the former Baptist pastor had a gift for connecting with the GOP’s cultural base.

“Those things come very natural to him,” Perkins said, alluding to Huckabee’s discussion of social issues.

But Perkins and other officials in the organization were less than exuberant in discussing the results.

Perkins allowed that Huckabee became a better candidate during the presidential campaign, before observing: “I still think he has potential.”

Tom McCluskey, a senior vice president at Family Research Council, went further, saying that many of the attendees “are looking for a new voice out there.”

Unsaid but plain to see is that Huckabee may again face the same difficulty he did in 2008, when he had trouble convincing some social conservative leaders that he was a viable presidential candidate. The former governor complained bitterly about the lack of support during and after the race, delving into the topic in his campaign memoir and pointing out that he was right on all the issues religious conservatives care most about. At this conference in 2007, just a few months before the primary began, Huckabee also bested Romney.

The biggest surprise in the results may have been in the four who were bunched up for second-place. That Romney, widely seen among party elites as the initial frontrunner for the 2012 nomination, only got one more vote than Pawlenty, a relative newcomer to the national stage, will bode well for the Minnesotan’s pre-primary campaign.

And the fact that Pence, who is as or less well-known than Pawlenty, finished so strongly may encourage him to take another trip to Iowa, where he visited earlier this year.

But the most notable finish may have been that of Palin, assumed to be the darling of social conservatives. Her fourth-place finish indicates that the sort of hyper-engaged voters who attend such Washington conferences as this may be hesitant to embrace such a polarizing candidate.

It also may say something about the importance of, to paraphrase Woody Allen, simply showing up.

“If you’re not present and you’re not communicating with people you’re not going to be in the forefront of their minds when they vote at the straw poll,” observed Perkins.

Please Please Elect Huckabee.someone with no knowledge of anything except God and gays (and not in that order) Let me break it down for you nimwits...Huckabee is unelectable..while he may win Iowa it will be a virtual repeat of what happened in 08...Pawlenty might take New Hampshire, Huck SC and perhaps Palin in florida..and Mittens will win the mormon states..this is too easy...Huckabee will not get elected because his wife looks like his twin...Obamas' romney ads will be Gov Romney vs Candidate Romney...TPaw can't even carry his own state..and he he will run so hard to the right..in the general he will be unelectable...Palin- fill in the blank...Jindal- well if some have a problem with Obama's skin color and "muslim-ness" doesnt bode well for wonder boy...Crist (something about against gays) Pence-no one knows and he is about as exciting as wall paper...Cantor-as exciting as spaghetti without the meatballs and he is jewish-there is a segment of republicans that will never vote for a jew- they love em so they can change them and save them from rapture-but not to vote for them...should I go on?

A deflated Romney, couldn't cheat, could stuff, couldn't have his supporters vote twice, no internet cheating for Romney.

Now Romney, don't be upping your chance, by flip flopping and saying a Hucklebee/ Romney ticket, it is soooooooo like a Romney. Most people don't know Romney's get most of their positions by appointment or riding the tails of others.

Mr. Gliz should have caught the hint when he was last to talk, and behind a much better speaker than Mitt.

Romney wins straw vote

WOW, look what happens when Romney cannot cheat

Mitt I read a post on 'The Hill" someone challenged you to bring your brother Scott and talk about your Russian connections -- are your old boys going to have the courage to confont a person you people badly abused over this?

I hear your old court friends are trying to leave them homeless too boot also, after the very cruel treatment they were put through to hide this association.

Right now, it looks like Huckabee-Romney match up for the Republican nomination, although this poll was from a socially and culturally conservative evangelical crowd that is already inclined to favor Huckabee over Romney.

Not that any polls mean much over three years before the election--or mean anything at all.

Right now, though, it looks like these two will go head-to-head with a few other also-rans, unless some new, unexpected candidate jumps into the race later.

Huckabee will run strong in those Southern primaries, but whether he can broaden his appeal much beyond that remains to be seen. Romney always appeals to the more moderate, suburban, centrist type Republicans, as well as the Country Clubbers. Whether he can make it through the primaries remains to be seen.

As for anyone else we haven't heard of getting into the race, I'm not sure who it would be. The Republican governor of Indiana perhaps? I can't even remember his name off the top of my head.

In announcing the straw poll results, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins praised Huckabee for having his “finger on the pulse” of conservative voters and said the former Baptist pastor had a gift for connecting with the GOP’s cultural base.

huck's got a "gift" alright...as a train wreck!

all

"That was Barack Obama. He just tripped off a chair. He's getting ready to speak and somebody aimed a gun at him and he -- he dove for the floor."-- Mike Huckabee after his speech to the National Rifle Association was interrupted by a loud noise

See video of huck's SICK Obama joke here or just Google: huckabee Obama gun—YOU WILL GET OVER ONE MILLION HITS!

This week, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee was a guest on The Colbert Report. But instead of receiving the customary Colbert Bump, the Governor's reward is appearing as this week's entry in our chronologically ordered Presidential Loser Series!

Huckabee gained notice as a candidate for being in a rock band and for courageously making a profit off a school shooting in his home state. But above all else, it was his inspirational weight loss story that gave his campaign a much-needed jumpstart.

Huckabee had been a 300-pound terror in the Arkansas governor's mansion, breaking chairs at cabinet meetings and devouring everything in sight. Finally one day, something snapped (possibly yet another chair.) The Governor took a vow to lose weight by eating only healthy sandwiches at Subway until he slimmed down to a reasonable .

Wait, actually that was Jared Fogle. But Huckabee did end up losing 110 pounds, a feat that naturally led to his run for the presidency.

Huckabee scored big with evangelical voters who were displeased that none of the other Republican contenders had ever practiced faith healing. Their support propelled Huckabee, allowing him to nearly reach his old weight in delegates before conceding on March 4th.

Although he did not win, Huckabee made history by proving that a white, male, music-playing, food-obsessed governor from Hope, Arkansas could make a serious run for the presidency. Yessir, he cracked that glass ceiling like a governor's mansion chair!